Asking our Cast

My group and I decided that we should add an extra element to our music video. We have decided that we want between 10-14 girls for the last 30 seconds of the song as we think it will highlight the female dominance and will look really cool and visual. Here is the email we sent. We wanted it to be fun so that the people would be persuaded to be in our video!

Props List

Here are the props for our video. As you can see we only need a few objects as most of the things we need are costumes and makeup. 

UV paint/makeup

Neon paint/ makeup

Cage

Smoke Bombs

Flares

5 Examples of Artists and their websites

Evaluation of Animatic Storyboard

This week we have been editing our animatic storyboards in order to get a better visual of what our final product will look like. 

Storyboarding (in my opinion) is essential in any type of media related filming project as I believe it is an important stepping stone towards the finished product as it can give a better idea of what it should look like and can raise unknown factors/problems that previously haven't been brought up. By adding the extra layer on animation to it, it can really highlight what the product will like and is useful to see whether it looks good, if it's too receptive and whether you have enough shots.

The process was very helpful for my group and I as we were able to work together and edit which meant we each established a role and it showed us what it's going to be like in a few weeks.

I think we have done very well with the editing as a whole as I feel most parts are well edited and cut clearly with the beat. We worked well as a team and our final animatic storyboard is good. I especially like the parts were the beat drops for around a second and then it cuts to a closer shot within the shot. This was a new editing trick that we all learnt along the process and I feel it gives our animatic an edge and we can put forth this in our real product. 

However, there is one weakness myself, my group and Luke/Paul/Matt/James noticed and that was in most of the animatic we revealed too much of our set too quickly meaning that for the audience they may of seen too much by the first 60 seconds. We discussed that we will obviously change this in our real product by leaving some of the 'big, main' shots towards the 90 second mark.

We really liked most of our shots we put into the storyboard, however as I've mentioned previously, we will defiantly be revealing some of the more extravagant shots of our outside locations later on in the video in order for the audience to remain interested in our video.

I think we did well representing our star image and most of our classmates really enjoyed the song and video. They especially like the female lead and the relationship towards the male.

In conclusion, I would say that overall I really enjoyed editing the storyboard and it was so helpful to compare as it has given me a greater insight towards what our final product is going to be like when editing it. I have learnt a few new techniques for editing and am defiantly looking forward to the next couple of weeks.

Finished Animatic Storyboard

Cast List

Here is the cast list for our music video. All together we have one female lead singer, three female dancers and one male.

Lead Singer: Carlotta Ba

Dancer: Phoebe Delikoura

Dancer: Reagan Muir

Dancer: Genevieve Skyes

Lead Male: George Gordon

Seeking Permission for Copyright

In order to continue with the music video process, we need to contact the copyright holder to the song  so that we are allowed to use it. My other group member Santi emailed Ministry of Sound the other day and we are waiting to hear back from them.

Editing the Sotryboard Animatic

Editing the story board footage started out to be quite tedious. This was because we were introduced to an entire new software that was different from final cut pro. Therefore we had to be taught whole new techniques and basic things e.g. how to cut. 

However we were able to get the hang of it quite quickly. After this we cracked on with editing. The editing process was very lengthly, as we had to cut to different beats, seeing as our beats were very fast based a lot of cutting was involved. But seeing it come together was satisfying and therefore motivated us. 

After we were finished we were able to a see a very vague idea of our music video will end up looking like and this was very helpful in terms of changes we wanted to make e.g. we realised that we were using to many medium and medium close up shots.

Looking at our Location

Today my group and I went to the paintball site in order to look at our location and work out any problems that may occur during the actual shoot.

I took the role as the lead singer and my group members took photos in order to see how the possible shots would look like.

During, we realised that there no longer was a bunker zone which actually suited us fine as we soon realised that there was a small distance between each zone, and carrying all the equipment would be quite timely so our final decision on what zones we are using are: the Pyramids, London and Star Wars.

We also found out about the energy supply as we know we will have to use other light sources. Luckily the paintball site provides many generators that we will be able to use.

Along with this, we have come up with other solutions towards keeping the actors/models warm and fed etc.

We are going to hire a patio warmer and we are able to order pizzas when needed as well as snacks and warm drinks being provided throughout the day.


The only issue that we have to really watch out for is the weather as this could really effect our overall product.

Overall it was a very successful day and my group and I feel very confident regarding our music video.

Shooting our Storyboards

Today Luke, Santi and I shot our storyboards as we will put these together along with our song so that we have a greater idea of what our final product should look like.

Our Storyboards

Costume and Makeup for our Video

Emily's Session

Our Session:

On Monday we had a session with Emily who is a video commisioner for Polydor Records in London. 

During the session we discussed her role and key elements to how a music video is created and it's timeline starting with a concept (treatment) and then production to editing and then publishing it. I learnt that usually the artist will sit down with the record label and discuss ideas for their music video and then go to a director to make a treatment or if they have no time to create an idea or don't have one it will then be open for directors to create a treatment to put forward. 

Once the brief is underway and the idea decided, it is then the video managers decision on how much the budget is which can range from a few thousand to a couple hundred thousand. Once preproduction is complete, filming is then underway and then edited once finsihsed. The whole process usually takes between 6 to 8 weeks from start to finish (publishing))

We also looked at a few treatments that became music videos recently and I found it very interesting seeing how the concepts were brought to life and how the finished product looked.

Here are the three music videos we looked at:

Out of the three my favourite one was Bipolar Sunshine's 'Deckchair's on the Moon'. I absolutely loved the video and everything about it. I think the colour scheme is great with the natural greens, beiges and monochrome colours. I think the landscape is beautiful and really suits the tone of the song and I think the story is really clear within the video.

 

I thought this video lacked a bit of originality and was quite poorly thought of. However there were certain aspects which I really enjoyed like the UV fish and the costume layout within the video. One thing I didn't like was the heat radiation filming e.g the palm trees and waves as I felt that it gave the video a quite cheap feel to it.



I thought this video was very interesting and cleverly though out. I really like how the song almost matches the era the video is capturing with a modern twist. It is a simple idea but has been executed very well with all the telephone props and simple actions. I also think it was a very good idea to incorporate a real number that fans can ring/text as it raises awareness and brings a but of humour to the video.

Other things to note:

Emily and her colleague also talked about the usefulness of labels such as Vevo, Noisey and Vimeo as they help to raise viewing numbers as well as paying Polydor Records for the amount of views they get. Adding to this sponsorship is also becoming more popular in order to raise finance for the video as this can mean a bigger budget if needed.